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S-Class Trials Final Round: Vant and Teresa's Teamwork
---- Teresa looked down at the small candle in her hand, barely bright enough to illuminate her face in the darkness of the room she and her partner had entered. Her eyes moved from the candle to the darkness in front of her, knowing that within it were several obstacles she and Vant would need to overcome. This thought brought her eyes back to the candle, its small flame flickering, their only light source and their lifeline as losing it not only meant total darkness but having to start back from the beginning as well. Such a setback would no doubt cost them dearly and so the candle took priority. Crystal began to form around the candle, encasing it in a crystal sphere that would act like a lantern of sorts with three small holes on each side to provide the flame with the oxygen it required to burn. The material that made up this crystal lamp also acted to magnify the light emitted by the candle as it passed through, turning their once small and fragile light to a bright orb in her hand. Protected from the elements and brighter than it had been before, they were ready to proceed. "Vant, I'll hold the candle and lead the way, keep an eye out for traps as well. Two sets of eyes are better than one." " So basically a sword and shield formation, right? Understood. I will do my best to help us win the trial." Vant puts his hand over his fist as a blue magic seal appeared on the ground, water spewed forward quickly turning into around ring-like shape as it forms around the two like a water loop. "This water make spell will keep obstacles away from us. If there is any confrontation, leave it to me. " Vant said calmly as he was holding his trident. "I don't personally feel that enemies are our main concern but I suppose there is no reason not to remain cautious," Teresa said, beginning to move forward. The light from the upgraded light gifted them with about ten feet of visibility, allowing her to see where she was going and making things like tripwires easily visible if they were to encounter them. "I don't know exactly what kind of obstacles we'll face here and since this trial is one that involves teamwork, it might be best if I get to know you a bit." She spoke, her eyes never leaving her scan of the floor and walls as they moved along the twisting path. "Tell me about yourself, your strengths and weaknesses. Why did you want to become S-class? Things of that like." " Oh, I'm Vant seas. My mom is a pro swimmer and my dad is a master fishermen. I live my whole childhood at sea. Uh...i know water magic and water make magic...I know a lot about the ocean and its creatures. I want to be an s-class mage so I can be the strongest and join the magic Council...but I'm struggling on my path. I really don't know what to count as a weakness. Maybe I have one, probably impatient, and uh...I just want to win. That's it I think." Vant answered the best he could. Teresa listened to him talk, a thought coming to mind as he spoke about his goal to grow stronger. She remembered something that light help them lighten the dark tunnel just a bit more than her crystal lantern had before. She stopped, closing her eyes, and focusing her magic on releasing her aura at its full power. Her bright purple glow further brightening the light they had at their disposal. "Vant, you do the same, it isn't much but every bit helps." She spoke, allowing him to release his aura as well before continuing on. The glow from the three light sources further extending their line of sight in the otherwise black hallway. "I'm Teresa Stein, a professor at the University of Crocus in the Magical Studies department. My father was a banker from Bosco, I moved her several years ago to study at the same university I'm teaching at now. I'd say my strengths lie in ranged combat and magical analysis and my weakness is close combat. I can't say I have any big dreams or goals in participating here. At least, none that I really understand at the moment. I simply felt the need to, like the idea of adventure was calling me. I don't know, such things aren't like me." She said with a quiet sigh. The sound of a snap grabbed their attention, a sudden bursting sound following before she can even register where they were coming from. However, upon looking to the wall to her right, she saw four small holes that vertically climbed the wall. Across from them were four darts that pierced the wall. Looking down at her feet, she saw that the blue barrier that had been created by Vant had triggered the trap by snapping a tripwire that she likely would have stepped in had it not been there. Moving closer, she pulled one of the darts from the wall, noting a liquid oozing from the tips. "It looks like they were likely sleeping darts. I don't think they'd be poison, regardless, it appears your aqua rings came in handy, thank you. I'll be sure to be cautious of any other tripwires on the ground." She spoke with a slight smile, the first on her otherwise serious face since she'd entered this trial. " You are most welcome. It is why I made this spell. Hopefully, I want to make sure that I can help. Until now, I thought strength was the only way to complete my goal, but I learned that was not enough. Wisdom and willing to sacrifice for the common good. And...I want to keep my new friend and friends safe. So I may disregard my health to help. Whoops. That may be a weakness and strength. Hehe, Sorry about that Teresa. " Vant smiled and rubs his head in embarrassment. "I agree that the idea of wanting to protect the people you care about no matter the cost may sound admirable and it may even make some look up to you but in my opinion, I don't see any merit in falling on your own sword. After all, once someone dies, that's it. All their hopes, all their dreams, if they die there is no one left to carry on that dream or reach that goal. All of it is lost. I do believe a powerful wizard once said, 'We do not die for our friends, we live for them'? I think that was it anyway. I find truth in those words. Like in any relationship, be it friend or lover, one must care for themselves as much as they do for others or it all becomes pointless." She spoke with her eyes trained on the ground, the hoping the blue barrier would warn her of any traps that might be overhead. She stops at the sight of a crease in the floor, the smooth walls and floor making the odd little crease stand out thanks to the brightness of the lights they carried. In the dark however, the crease would likely have gone unnoticed. She kneeled down, running her finger along the crease to feel a slight draft coming through and from that observation she was able to tell that it likely lead somewhere. Creating an orb of crystal in her hand, she sat it atop the crease. The floor giving way the moment she let its weight be supported by the floor in front of them. She listened, never hearing it hit the ground, even trying to retrieve it using her telekinesis did not work as it was beyond her range. With this, she knew this hole was not some kind of secret door the two were meant to find but another trap. With a sigh, she covers the area in a layer of her crystal to prevent herself or her partner from falling in. "It's a pitfall but I took care of it, let's continue on." " Yes. I am coming. I wonder. Will I obtain my dreams? I always sacrifice my health for my friends and family. Is that hard on my myself? And my goal. Who would inherit them? The reason I seek strength is that I wanted to protect people and disregard my health because as long as they are safe, it doesn't matter to me....aaand I just said that out loud didn't i. Guess I have more weaknesses than I thought. " Vant said as he rubs his head in embarrassment. Teresa didn't respond to the boy who thought out loud, knowing it wasn't her place to continue to critique his thoughts. They continued down the maze-like path, taking several turns and backtracking several times before coming to a gap in the path, a pit that spanned about ten feet worth of the path. Five small stone steps only big enough to fit one foot on at a time spanned the length to act as the only way across. "We'll have to be careful about skipping over them." She spoke using her telekinesis to hold the crystal lantern in the air as she hopped onto the first stone. She released the breath she'd been holding when she finds her balance on the first stone before eyeing the distance of the next and hopping toward it. She quickly made it to the last stone before reaching the other side, her heel barely missing the back end of the rock and causing her to fall backward and forcing herself to use her telekinesis to catch herself. Her lapse in concentration nearly seeing to it that she lost the lantern as well. However, she did not and thus she pushed herself up and made the last jump to the other side of the chasm before turning around and placing the lantern above the pit to allow him its light to make the same journey. Once the two made it to the other side, the continued forward, taking several more turns before turning down a wider hallway with a green light at the end. In the otherwise black chamber the sight of a light whose source they knew nothing about was ominous, to say the least and thus she proceeded with caution. As the two stepped into the large hallway, she could again feel a draft and the fact that this one did not seem to be coming from a hole in the ground was promising to her. However, as the two continued down the hall the slight draft became a wind that soon became a gust to the point that she feared for the safety of their flame. Using her cap to cover the flame severely reduced their visibility but in their current situation, it was their only choice. The wind grew stronger and stronger before it took all of her strength to remain on her feet. As she began to feel her strength failing her, she erected a telekinetic barrier around themselves just before the wind picked up several times worse than it was a moment ago. The sound of the wind against the barrier was deafening as she focused her concentration on keeping up the barrier even as the wind threatened to push them back. "Vant, I think I saw the shadow of a door just below the green light before the wind started picking up. Could you use something to give us a bit of a boost?" She asked as she opened up the back of the barrier in hopes he might be able to help push against the wind. Vant closes his eyes to focus his new powers as black marks appear on his body and his magic power skyrocket as he opens his right hand as water begins to form in his hand. Growing bigger by the second, he let carefully let it flow in the back to swirl around the barrier to help preserve her magic reserves and formed a cocoon around the two to block out the water. He carefully made sure that the water won't touch her or the flame, similar like a hamster in a ball, the back of the water cocoon was sealed up so the wind or any trap won't get through. He was looking at her. " This water cocoon will keep you and the flame safe. I will continue to expand it and make the surface of the water to be reflected to keep harm away." Vant said as he closes his eyes again to focus. Teresa's eyebrow raised as Vant went about cocooning the two of them in a sphere of water. While it wasn't exactly what she'd asked for, it would work as it allowed her to focus on moving forward rather than keeping the wind away. Closing her eyes, she imagined her mental barrier around the sphere of water. Rather than hardening it to act as a barrier she began to envision it spinning like a ball rolling on the ground, the sphere of water holding them in place while her telekinetic sphere moved them forward. Sweat formed on her brow from the mental strain of fighting the wind but she remained focused, concentrating on keeping them moving forward and before she knew it, the wind had stopped, the two having made it below the large fan to a safe area just before the door. Letting her barrier fall, she signaled for Vant to do the same and the two exited the windy room back into the winding halls of the maze. At the end of the long hall was a set of stairs, the two began to climb them when they suddenly disappeared, folding inward to become a slide and forcing the two back down to where they had begun at the bottom of the staircase. The sound of sliding rock caught their attention as two doors to either side of them opened, the staircase closing off as a large stone slab fell to block it in case they decided to try to make their way up once more. Teresa thought for a moment, looking at the doors to her sides. She could feel a breeze coming from both of them and wondered which would be the correct path. However, she was surprised when the breeze stopped coming from one of the doors. Her curiosity got the better of her and she knew something was down that way but whether it was the exit or not would remain to be seen. "I think this is the way we should go. I mean, there's something down that way that just blocked the breeze that was coming through so even if it isn't the exit there might be something down there that could help us." She thought before motioning for Vant to follow as she pointed the light toward the door to her left. The path was long, longer than she thought the small island could contain and she began to have doubts about her choice but a faint purple glow in the distance caught her eye and she began move toward it at a brisk pace. When they arrived they found another set of stairs blocked by a Jutsu Shiki barrier. "Vant, this one seems a bit stronger than the one we encountered outside. It may require both of us to break it, would you mind giving me a hand?" " Yes. Shall we use a Union Raid attack? " Vant said to her. Teresa shook her head, "no, that would be impossible for us to achieve. Such a task would require me to have known you for much longer than I have and even then, it would be a waste to use that much magic power on a Jutsu Shiki barrier when we have no idea what else we'll face once we're past it." Teresa explained, raising her wand to the barrier and readying an attack. "We'll just attack the same point at the same time to maximize damage and hopefully break it down." She spoke, turning to Vant and signaling for him to prepare his own attack. Vant nods as he made a glaring expression which triggered the same black marks on his body to appear as the black marks now have red outlines on them, his eyes become red and his sclera becomes black, and a black aura surged around his body with red electricity circling around his body. He puts his hands over his fist with a dark blue magic seal beneath his feet as gigantic of water formed into the air in forms of water that was the size of saucers. " Ready? " Vant said as his voice echoed. Teresa nodded, the two releasing their spell against the barrier which buckled for a moment before the two increased their power and blasted a hole in the magical barrier which quickly shattered the rest of it and left the stairway open to them. Placing her wand back at her side and raising up the candle to light their way as they made it up the staircase to the next level. The stairs seemed to go on for quite some time with no doors or floors they could go through. Walking up the stairs for what felt like more time than she'd have liked to spend doing such a repetitive task the two eventually saw a light in the distance which seemed to signal the end of their journey up the long stairway. Cautiously, the two made it the rest of the way before entering a large chamber. The room was large, big enough to comfortably hold at least twenty people and far too large for their aura and flames to fully illuminate. Reaching the center of the room, she held the light up to a seven foot tall stone statue. In one it held an outstretched hand in one hand and a stone tablet in the other. “Blinded by darkness thou cannot see. Through guided hand thou shalt be free. A granted wish by Gods above, a test of faith or lack thereof.” Teresa studied the tablet that seemed to hold the key to their freedom. A riddle etched into the stone slab in front of them. Upon reading the short verse a few more times she began to think about what it could mean. Seeing the outstretched hand of the statue made it seem as though it were asking for something but what that could be she had little clue to go on. She began to move around the room, holding the candle up to the walls to see several pictures drawn on them. Pictures of what seemed to be stories of a God. Her the pieces clicked into place when she saw, near the back of the room, a larger drawing of the same God from the statue holding up the sun. Signaling for Vant to follow, they made their way back toward the statue where she placed the glowing crystal containing the candle in the hand of the God. Standing there for a few moments she waited for any hint that what she had done was indeed the right thing to do but nothing happened. Realizing that she alone would have the power to create the crystal she used to protect the candle. She held it again, removing the crystal before placing it back in the hand of the God. After another few moments of nothing, a spark above them seemed to trigger a chain reaction of some kind. Like a fuse being lit, the heat of the candle had caught a string above the statue on fire, the fuse leading up and then around the room where it lit several more candles to illuminate the entire room and reveal all the pictures that had been painted onto the walls before the ceiling opened up and the mid-afternoon sun rained down on them. A set of stairs leading up to the small section of the roof that seemed to be reserved for those who made it to wait for the trials to be over. Teresa turned, retriving their candle from the hand of the God but feeling as though it had served its purpose anyhow. She nodded to Vant before the two climbed the stairs and finished the final trial.